Reviewing the images of the rides

- Alright. Well, in this critique we're goingto move inside Coney Island proper,where the rides are and some of the scary stuff.Now, I'm wanting to concentrate on the rides.It helps me to go in with sort ofa clear idea of what I'm trying to get.This way I can concentrate.When you know what you're looking forit's a lot easier to find it.So, I was going to concentrate on the rides,but coming in I would see this gentleman.He asked me to take his picture.I wasn't going to not take his picture.He kind of scared me a little bit.And I'll probably use this in the final story slideshowthat I'll show you at the end,and some of the other signs as I'm walking in,even though I'm going for some of the rides.

There was kind of a beautiful moon.I'm going to try it with 'TILT-A-WHIRL' in focus,and then maybe the moon in focus,and then maybe just without the signand get the moon in a sense of placeas just kind of a nice image.The Wonder Wheel signs.This one's a little bit messy here on the side,but this one is a little bit different, a little cleaner,perhaps arguably a little bit nicer,and you can see this ride coming up that just adds an extra.Whether or not I'll leave this in or not,maybe it's a little distracting, I don't know,but I like this little thing coming in as I was shooting it,so I'm very aware of it.

The signs... you saw me when I photographed this'NO STUPID QUESTIONS!' sign.It was just kind of a fun thing, maybe I'll use it.And again, on my way to the ridesI see this gentleman peering in the photo booth.For whatever reason, he was excluded,so he's sticking his face in,and it makes for kind of a cute image,and I'm following him as he buries his headunder the curtain there,and I'll ultimately choose the strongest one.This woman was feeding her babyinside one of those amusement games,so I shot a couple of quick frames before she noticed me.

Now I'm getting to the rides.This is kind of what I'm looking for.A woman on her cellphone, not the best angle,but still kind of a cute image.You don't necessarily see peopleon there phones on these rides.Moments, people kind of relaxing.I like this little piece of equipment here.It says 'Lull', and it looks like a lull in the action,so I decided to keep this in the frame.It's kind of yellowish, and it sort of goes,and as a color image it's yellow, red, and blue,so there's not a lot of distracting color.I think it works really well.

So, I'm walking and shooting and just reactingto whatever I see to help capture the spirit of the event,but it's really the rides that I'm going for.And, there's this swing ride, and you cansee the shadows being cast at this particular time of day,so I'm going to focus on the shadows,because I think shadows are oftenreally kind of an interesting thing to shoot.So, it's moving around, and I'm gettingdifferent patterns of shadows, and I decided I woulddo something a little bit different,and that is rotate the image upside down,because I thought this looks kind of cool.

There are no rules necessarily.So, I'm shooting, trying to get a clean separationof all the legs, didn't quite happenexactly maybe the way I wanted.This is a lot better, and because they're moving so fast,you're not thinking, you're just reacting,and ultimately you're going to choose what you thinkis going to be the strongest image.So, I'm going to think on that,but it's going to be a bit of a tough choice,because a lot of them are kind of very similar,so I'm going to compare them.Hit this carousel, the horses were very beautiful,beautifully lit, but they were by themselves.

There weren't a lot of people,so I decided I would try and make some nice imagesof these horses themselves in the beautiful light.You can see it reflected in the mirrors,so that caught my eye, I thought I would do a shotof the reflection, and they're really kind of beautifulthe way they're made, but really what I'm looking foris the people and the carousel and the horses.So, when the people got onand the kids got on I focused on them.This little girl, she was so cute, and she's going around.

She entered the light, so I kind of positioned myselfwhere the light was and then just waitedfor her to come around, and I had a few shots,so I was able to photograph a few times,and ultimately I think this was the imagethat I selected as being the strongest.The kid's having so much fun,and you want to really capture that,that's really what Coney Island is all about,especially for the kids, so you wantto capture the sheer joy on their face,and with this kid, he was reacting so much.I'm looking for how people react as you saw,and when I see someone reacting really nicely,I'm going to focus on them and spend timeand try and get the best possible shotthat really captures the joy on the kid's face,because that really is goingto help tell the story of Coney Island.

And then, these swings, they're pretty cool.These are the reflections you saw in the shadows.This was kind of a scene that I hadn't seen before.I thought it was really cute, the mom,those must be her kids or she must know them,and she's photographing them in the hil-en-ren.As a photographer I can appreciatesome planning went into this,and I bet she got a really cool and different shot,and I got a cool and different shot,so I really like that one.And this ride, here it is at the bottom.I just put this image here to show you,but really this is where the action is.This thing goes upside down, the expressions are crazy,the legs are flailing all over the place,and I'm shooting, shooting, shooting.

I'm looking for the one shot that reallykind of captures the maximum expressions that people haveor legs that are just kind of crazy flailing.I think that's going to really helpto tell the story of Coney Island, the thrill rides.Some of the rides you can't see faces,because people are caged in, so I wantedto photograph things where you can see their faces,and then went back a little bit laterwhen it was a little darkerand the light is a little bit different,and that's kind of interesting too.

Unfortunately they're not that many peopleas you can see on this particular one.So, you do what you do.Here you can see kind of a plane ride and then this,so I'm trying to frame it in a different way.This I thought was kind of cool,because there's and actual plane,and it gives it a sense of height,and even though you can't see the facesyou see the legs all over the place,and I think the plane adds something to it,so again I'm going to have a hard time choosing.Here's another one, another anglewhere you've got the plane and you've got the American flag,and I kind of like the graphic nature of this one too,so we'll see which one ultimately I pick.

This was kind of cool, because you've gotthese Canadian geese flying, and I decidedthat I noticed them as you'll see in another picturethat they were coming, and it looks likethis one guy is sort of looking at the Canadian geese.I would too, I mean he's up there with them.Ah, there's the one where you can see them in formation,which is kind of neat, so you've got to be ready,click click, shoot shoot, and ultimately you might use it.So when you saw me shoot through the fencesthere were a couple of things that I was shooting at.

It was this sort of catapult ride, where I was trying to getthe light was really kind of ...It's just graphic, it's almost black and white.I wanted to see the feet there,but I also decided I would actually include the fencein the shot, just to sort of see what it might look likeas a graphic element, and I thinkin this particular shot I kind of like it.It's high lit, you can see a little bit of the light there,you can see their feet, and you've got the pattern,which is really cool, so there wasone shot that I did through the fence.And, this was the other one that I saw.

I love the graphic nature of the sun settingand the roller coaster tracks,so I was waiting for the roller coasters to go by,and I was kind of shooting as it did.This one I turned to black-and-whiteand I made it a little bit lighter,so you can see the expressions on the faces.But, I'm following it, you can see the catapult rideand the roller coaster, but it isn't reallyquite exactly what I'm looking for.We're getting closer here, it's a very graphic image.

Getting closer here too, because you can see the joyon the face of the person here,so I'm shooting, I'm shooting.I'm getting closer.This one I kind of like, because you can see the guy there,and I might crop this a little differently,but it's graphic, and you can see what's happening.Ah, here it is, so this is the onethat I really liked from here, because you can seethe nice outline, it's a very graphic image.It's going so fast there, I put themright at the tip of the frame, and sometimesthat can be effective, just to have your subjectright at the tip of the frame here,but he's kind of the major important.

He's like, "Yee-haw!" he's going at it,and it's really kind of cool.And, here you've got this one,but I think that this is the one.And, then I went back a little,and I included the head and people up there.This one I really like from that too,because you've got the head, you've got the graphic nature,and I think it's the little things that make a difference,Because you can see all five fingers,that just gives it just a little bit extra,and that's what I'm always trying to do,and I'm encouraging you to always try and pushto get that shot that's just a little bit extra,a little bit more special.

This one was probably my favorite I have to say, and it wasjust the sheer joy of this woman right front and center.You've got the great profile there, the sun setting.This one will likely be my ending image for the slideshow,because it ends on a high note.The sun's going down, she's really kind of happy,and I think it's really kind of storytellingand will really finish off the story very well.So, there you go.There's the critique from the rides at Coney Island.

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Released

8/14/2015

Amusements parks, boardwalks, tacky tourist stands, and interesting characters are defining features of many seaside destinations, and no place brings them all together like New York's Coney Island. In this course, photographer and educator Steve Simon goes on a photo expedition to this landmark location and shows how to capture the carnival rides, colorful characters, and boardwalk fare.